Old is gold: Dilip Ghosh’s cryptic message amid West Bengal BJP discontent

Dilip Ghosh, a senior BJP leader, sparked speculation of an “old vs new” debate in the party’s West Bengal unit with a social media post on June 8 questioning the rationale for moving an established leader like himself from a winnable constituency to a tough election ground.

“Old is gold,” Ghosh wrote in a cryptic message on X. He had earlier said the party had made a mistake by excluding veteran legislators and that with newcomers and inexperienced leaders in charge, electoral disaster was bound to happen.

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The BJP’s tally in the state assembly has fallen to 12 in this election from 18 in 2019, when Ghosh was the state BJP president. The party had been targeting 30 of the 42 seats this time.

Ghosh lost to TMC’s Kirti Azad in the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency by a margin of around 1.38 lakh votes. Ghosh had earlier said that sending him from his old constituency, Medinipur, to the new constituency had proved to be a “mistake”.

He was shifted from the Medinipur constituency, where he won, to Bardhaman Durgapur constituency, where the fight against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was clearly looking tough.

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Ghosh replaced S.S. Ahluwalia, the incumbent MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency, who has now been transferred to Asansol. Agnimitra Paul, the sitting MLA from Asansol-Dakshin constituency, replaced Ghosh in Medinipur.

All three BJP candidates were heavily defeated by TMC candidates in the recently concluded elections. On June 7, Ghosh had questioned the state BJP leadership’s choices, especially the transfer of experienced leaders like him and former Union minister Debasree Choudhury from their constituencies to unfamiliar ones.